Student Spotlight: Jaylen Minard in Thailand
What is one challenge you experienced during your first month? How did you overcome that challenge?
“The biggest challenge so far with living in Thailand is learning how to budget my funds. Within my first week of living here, I have blown through 250 USD on trying new food, buying the necessities for my dorm, getting uniforms, and buying other items to ensure my well-being. One of my biggest goals is to stretch my current funds for the next 6 months; however, spending $250 a week will not even get me to the end of this semester. To combat this issue, I started a budget for myself. From Monday to Friday and Sunday, I can only spend 240 Baht on meals for the day. I give myself 400-500 baht on Saturdays to try a new place. I also give myself a 40-baht limit for desserts. Also to help myself stick to my budget, I started limiting or saying “no” to going out, and applying for more scholarships to reimburse my bank account.”
What similarities and differences have you experienced between your host culture and your culture?
“There many similarities I have experienced in my host culture and my culture. As in the South, Thai people will always try to make you feel at home, especially in the service industry. During my first week or two in Thailand, I was eating McDonald’s with a friend, and this McDonald’s worker stopped what she was doing and insisted on letting her throw my trash away. Sometimes, I find this level of care a bit suffocating because it makes me feel like Thai people are belittling me (working on telling myself this is only Thai people’s way of making someone comfortable; they can tell you are a foreigner). There is also incredible food back at home and here it is a 10/10. Importance of kindness is also a common similarity. As for differences, accommodating foreigners is significantly different. No matter how rural or urban a city in Thailand may be, the amount of consideration Thai people give foreigners is unlike the U.S. My friends went to a national park last week, located in the middle of nowhere. If it wasn’t for the kindness of the residents of the area giving my friends rides, there would be no way for them to safely make it to the park. The cherry on top of this too was none of the locals wanted money for their help, so my friends paid them in fruit roll-ups. This rarely happens in the US. Americans will treat foreigners nicely, but never as nice as these Thai locals without compensation. I can’t blame Americans for this though because we have been conditioned to be more selfish than Thai people. Male/Female Display of Kinship is also different. This is one of the first lessons I learned during my first week of school. If a Thai person really likes you, then a Thai person might become really touchy (like sniff-kiss you, etc.). In America, these seemingly romantic-esk gestures would be considered flirting. It's an active joke between my friends that we will never know if a Thai person likes us because they are either timid or overly touchy, which is a form of friendliness. Small talk/greeting others in the South, is a big sign of respect to greet others you make eye contact with, such as your driver, or really anybody you pass by. When I try to greet my bus driver in the morning, I feel like I am intruding on his day. Now when I get on the bus, I notice that the Thai students do not say anything unless they are telling the driver to stop somewhere. That has made me uncomfortable to greet the driver in the morning or say thank you after a ride. Reading in between the lines, Thai people tend to not like hurting others' feelings, so it takes them a hard time to say what’s on their mind. For instance, there is a girl in my Gender and Women Studies class and I asked for her Instagram. At first, she told me she had a private account, and in my head, I was like “What does that have to do with anything?” So I asked her, “Does this mean ‘no?’” and she softly nodded her head. It was awkward seeing her after that moment, but I am learning to respect her decision. The good news though, we do wave at each other and still do class activities with each other so that’s nice. In the U.S, we are conditioned to tell someone how it is. I have vivid memories of my mother or friends being brutally honest with me on issues, even when they don’t need to be this harsh.”
What are you looking forward to experiencing in your second month abroad?
“At the top of my October objective list is to attend a music event with my friend P. In general, I want to hang out more with my international friends in October and November, but especially with P. He is this guy in my “Theories of Personality” class and his personality is just a vibe (down to earth; musically inclined; questions each other a lot on social norms). We both agreed we would visit a concert or any music-related event with each other because we really bonded on our music tastes. Unfortunately, his schedule is normally packed with organizing events around campus; however, we will find a way around this.”